1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle occupant restraint apparatus that restrains an occupant, seated in a seat, to the seat at least in the event of a collision.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-297917 (JP-A-2005-297917) describes a technique that relates to a vehicle occupant restraint apparatus which includes a shoulder belt that extends obliquely from the shoulder of an occupant on one side toward the hip on the other side and that has an inflatable belt portion. According to JP-A-2005-297917, the vehicle occupant restraint apparatus further includes a head protection airbag that inflates toward the front of a vehicle as the inflatable belt portion inflates, thus receiving an occupant's head. In addition, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,945, GB Patent Application Publication No. 2341358, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-210428 (JP-A-2007-210428), Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-106008 (JP-A-2001-106008), and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-342827 (JP-A-11-342827) describe various techniques that an occupant restraint webbing has all inflatable portion.
However, in the technique described in JP-A-2005-297917, the relatively large head protection airbag partially communicates with the inflatable belt portion. Therefore, the deployment behavior of the head protection airbag may be unstable or it may take tirne to complete deployment of the head protection airbag.